Diary of an Empty City

On view at the Faurschou Foun­dation Beijing Liu Xiaodong’s reflection on the Chinese dream life and dream city environment, expressed through works painted in Mongolia.

Liu Xiaodong’s exhibition at the Faurschou Foun­dation Beijing shows a body of work painted live in Mongolia during the summer of 2015 entitled “Diary of An Empty City”.

Liu Xiaodong has long been fascinated by the Chinese phenomenon of the “ghost city” frequently portrayed by the western press and urban planning aficio­nados, and has chosen a propitious location in Ordos, Inner Mongolia to set his latest scene for live painting and reflection on the Chinese dream life and dream city environment.

Top: Liu Xiaodong, Diary of An Empty City 1, 2015 (detail). Oil on Canvas, 250 x 300 cm. Collection of the artist. Above: Liu Xiaodong, Diary of An Empty City 2, 2015. Oil on Canvas, 250 x 300 cm. Collection of the artist

Ordos is situated in the center of a region, which has some of the largest deposits of coal in China, and has been transformed in record time from one of the poorest areas of China to one of the wealthiest. Local farmers and miners have become the protagonists of rags-to-riches stories as regional and city governments have built the dream city. Although it is a giant metropolis with amazing infrastructure including condominium towers, shop­ping malls, a museum and high-speed trains, Ordos remains a place mys­teriously empty with a population of approximately 20,000 inhabitants. A city without residents – an unfinished plan, a paradoxical place where the realization of a modern dream society in terms of urban infrastructure lacks only the inhabitants to live their fulfilled dream life. Liu Xiaodong investigates the ideal of the dream life within the context of the reality of the current Chinese lifestyle, discreetly asking, “What is our dream? A ghost city or a crowded city, which is better?”

Liu Xiaodong, <i>Diary of An Empty City 3</i>, 2015. Oil on Canvas, 250 x 300 cm. Collection of the artist
Liu Xiaodong, <i>Digging</i>, 2015. Oil on Canvas, 35 x 40cm. Collection of the artist
Liu Xiaodong, <i>Xiaojun Returns Home</i>, 2015. Oil on Canvas, 35 x 40cm. Collection of the artist
Liu Xiaodong, <i>Four Columns</i>, 2015. Oil on Canvas, 35 x 40cm. Collection of the artist
Liu Xiaodong, <i>Painting on Photo 1</i>, 2015. Acrylic on Photo Paper, 41.5 x 50cm. Collection of the artist
Liu Xiaodong, <i>Painting on Photo 2</i>, 2015. Acrylic on Photo Paper, 41.5 x 50cm. Collection of the artist
Liu Xiaodong, <i>Blue 9</i>, 2015. Acrylic on Paper, 50 x 50cm. Collection of the artist
Liu Xiaodong, <i>Blue 17</i>, 2015. Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 27.5cm. Collection of the artist


September 12 – October 18, 2015
Liu Xiaodong
Diary of An Empty City

curated by Jérôme Sans
Faurschou Foun­dation Beijing
798 Art District
No2 Jiuxuanquao Road
Chaoyang District, Beijing